TVSquad

During the recent broadcast of the Primetime Emmys, one of the funniest presenters was Ricky Gervais. It's not surprising that Ricky was funny that night. He's a brilliant comic actor, writer and director. I say this even after suffering through The Invention of Lying, a film that had a wonderful premise but was a crappy movie. Nevertheless, I still think he's fantastic. And I will watch the 67th Annual Golden Globes with Ricky Gervais as host.

The NBC censor's finger will surely be on the button January 17, the night of the broadcast, because you could imagine Ricky getting a wee bit close to the line of what you can and cannot say on TV. Although he's probably clever enough to say or do something that the censors wouldn't get till after it airs.

The Simpsons have been around for so long that one must wonder if there is an award they haven't been given yet. I mean other than that stupid, meaningless paperweight the industry calls the Emmy.

The Paley Center for Media will pay a special tribute to The Simpsons at this year's annual fundraising gala. The Center's president Pat Mitchell said they chose to honor the show because of its "tremendous impact on the television sitcom over the last 20 years and continues to influence and redefine the medium."

So I guess now when the nominating committee for the Paley Center has their annual honor candidate hoedown and someone suggests The Simpsons, the South Park delegate can yell "Simpsons did it!"

How do you pump up the viewership for a music award show on a network that used to be all about music but lately has been all about reality TV and nasty scandals? Well, apparently MTV has decided to go retro and keep it funny. To promote the upcoming 2009 Video Awards, MTV has created a West Side Story parody, not too different from the brilliant solo turn by Neil Patrick Harris at last June's Tony Awards.

The commercial is a mixed bag. Taylor Swift proves that she has the real goods as a singer, doing the toughest part of the "Tonight" quintet. Ne-Yo's dance turn is more of a salute to Michael Jackson than an homage to composers Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim. And Katy Perry's rooftop bit reinforces the fact that she's funny and playful.

Tina Fey's surprise return to Saturday Night Live as Sarah Palin was one of the ten greatest TV moments of 2008 (and quite possibly the decade, the century, the millennium and the eon).

So it's no surprise that Fey's name and show 30 Rock came up so many times in the recent list of Emmy nods. I'm no longer convinced that she's a woman. I'm convinced she's an experimental humanoid prototype designed by studio executives solely to win awards like Tom Hanks (aka "Project Red Shoe").

It's also no surprise that one of the two acting nods she scored included her Palin performance on SNL.

Television is a vast alien landscape of shows, programs and other watchables. So the odds of a really good show not getting special recognition are about as good as Michael Chiklis' chances of his noggin being mistaken for a shiny, beige Brunswick in a bowling alley.

The Emmys also tend to favor younger shows rather than the oldies that have had their chance to win some awards because the best stuff on television is always fresher out of the gate. It's just the beast of the cycle. Great movies age like a fine cheese. Great TV shows age like spray cheese.

The Shield, however, got totally snubbed from this year's nomination list. And is that something the Academy really wants to do to a guy with a hair trigger anger who considers a Smith and Wesson as his "backup piece"? (I should ask myself the same thing after that bowling ball noggin joke.)

Maybe I should watch The Simpsons more often. The Writer's Guild of America has nominated FOX's long-running animated sitcom for best comedy series along with 30 Rock, The Office, Entourage and Weeds. This is the first time The Simpsons has nabbed a Best Comedy nom from the WGA. Considering that the show has been on for 19 years, I gotta ask -- Why now?

Did the success of The Simpson's Movie really re-energize the show's creative team that much? It's been years since I watched The Simpsons regularly, or even quoted the show in conversation with my friends. I figured its best days were behind it, but maybe I was wrong. The few eps I caught last season were pretty hit-and-miss. I wasn't too impressed with the Departed spoof, "The Debarted," but I really dug watching Homer invent grunge music in "That '90s Show." Were all the following eps as good as that one?

The WGA also nominated four episodes of The Simpsons in the category of best animation broadcast. Needless to say, I'll probably be tuning in when the series returns with fresh eps next year. Click through for a list of more WGA TV nominees.

The Teen Choice Awards will feature a dance battle between two of the toughest, roughest, street-est (not a word, I know) dance crews around. No, Lil C and his crew won't be there crumping. Miley Cyrus and Mandy Jiroux's M&M Cru will battle ACDC, the dance crew featuring Jon M. Chu and Adam Sevani of Step Up 2: The Streets. The two crews are BFFs and they challenged each other back in April. A more heated rivalry has not been seen since TuPac and Biggie. Yeah! Totally street. "Street" is even in the name of the movie.

The Teen Choice Awards have some other performers and appearances lined up too. But they're not "street" so who cares? Shia LaBeouf, David Archuleta, James Marsden, Sophia Bush, Josh Holloway, Scarlett Johansson, Zac Efron, Pink, JoJo, Kristen Bell, and Hayden Panettiere are some of the other names previously announced. Mariah Carey is slated to perform her new single, "I'll Be Lovin' You Long Time."

The Teen Choice Awards will air on August 4th at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Fox.

Tonight, the members of the Television Critics Association (including me) gathered at the Beverly Hilton to give out its annual awards. The membership voted on the awards in the month leading up to the press tour; we were given a number of candidates to choose from in various categories. The membership was also asked to choose recipients for an individual Career Achievement award and the Heritage Award, which recognizes a past show that had a big impact artistically and on the industry.

The members didn't reach back too far for the Heritage Award: it was given to The Wire. As for current shows, the members gave Mad Men a bushel of awards: Program of the Year, Outstanding New Program, and Outstanding Achievement in Drama. 30 Rock won for Outstanding Achievement in Comedy, and Tina Fey won the Individual Achievement in Comedy award for her performance. John Adams won the mini-series award; its star, Paul Giamatti, won the Individual Achievement in Drama award. Lorne Michaels of Saturday Night Live received the Career Achievement award.

A complete list of winners is after the jump.

There were plenty of choices for The Arrested Development Award, a.k.a. The Show Least Deserving of Cancellation Award. Among them, Las Vegas, New Amsterdam, Miss Guided, Aliens in America, and Women's Murder Club.

The Readers Choice Award goes to Moonlight, the vampire-themed crime-drama-romance that amassed an insane amount of fans during its short run. And it still might come back on another network, so we'll keep our collective fingers crossed on that.

The TV Squadders' pick is Journeyman. Here's why:

1. Time-traveling is cool. The idea of time-travel is always intriguing, as evidenced by other shows like Quantum Leap and Sliders. What's cool about Journeyman is that Dan Vasser, played by Kevin McKidd, is just a normal guy who could be any one of us. At first, he hates the time-traveling. It interrupts his life and causes undue stress, both at home and work. But later, when given the opportunity to make it stop, he chooses to keep time-traveling. He knows he's been chosen for a reason, and feels it's his calling to help people right the wrongs of history. Never mind that every episode made me wonder how much of history he changed by leaping into the past. I can only imagine that even the smallest of events might drastically alter the space-time continuum.

The final award we're calling for considerations for is one I'm most excited about. The Most Real Unreal Award goes to the show that, during the 2007-2008 television season, displayed the most impressive and realistic example of special effects.

Now, before you go assuming we're limiting this to purely science fiction shows, step back for a moment and consider some non-scifi shows that might be fit for such an award. Lost, though with its scifi elements, is considered a drama series, though it's shown some impressive effects this season. Pushing Daisies is another. How about House or the ill-fated Moonlight?

Take your pick amongst the sci-fi and supernatural shows we cover, and I'm sure any one of them could be a great fit for this category: Battlestar Galactica, Eureka, Stargate. What shows would you like to see nominated and what specific aspects of those shows are the most impressive examples of making the "unreal" look real?

They most prestigious award for excellence in broadcasting -- next to the Emmys -- were announced today. The 67th Annual Peabody Awards honored Mad Men, 30 Rock, Dexter, Project Runway, The Colbert Report -- all favorites here at TV Squad -- among others. To the Peabody Award voters, I say, "Good job."

The winners, chosen by the Peabody board -- which is part of the University of Georgia's Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication -- will receive the awards on June 16 at a luncheon at New York's Waldorf Astoria. NBC News anchorman Brian Williams will be the emcee.

As the Academy Award presentation approaches, that can only mean one thing -- time for a new Barbara Walters special. Yes, yes, what matters most before the big show isn't the red carpet and the fashions, it's who will Barbara be interviewing for her annual Oscar edition? Ms. Walters has four biggies lined up for the Sunday, February 24th (7:00-8:00 p.m. ET) broadcast. Oscar nominee Ellen Page, star of Juno; Indiana Jones, himself, Harrison Ford; Ugly Betty diva, Vanessa Williams; and Hannah Montana/teen queen Miley Cyrus. It's an eclectic group, to say the least, but then, that's Baba Wawa's formula for success, is it not? After all, this is her 27th straight year doing a pre-Oscar special.

FOX announced today that Ryan Seacrest will be hosting the 59th Emmy Awards on FOX September 16 at 8:00 p.m. This news comes in the wake of the announcement that Seacrest will also be hosting the Super Bowl.

I have no idea if this is a good idea or not, as I don't watch American Idol, E! News, Captain Seacrest's Pirate Ship Hootenanny, or whatever the hell other series he's featured on. Still, isn't the typical rule for awards shows to have some kind of comedian hosting them?

The Peabodys are an interesting case in a world over-saturated with award ceremonies and self-congratulatory accolades. The Peabodys don't actually have categories or even a set number of awards to give out every year. The good folks at the University of Georgia's Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication just give them out as they deem necessary, and their goal isn't just to recognize local news stations or broadcast journalists. The Peabodys' aim is to hold up examples of "what can and should be done in the worlds of journalism, entertainment, documentary, education and public service," or so their press release tells me.

As you know, Jerry Seinfeld recently received the Comedian Award. If you're wondering just how much awards, award ceremonies, and the pageantry that surrounds them means to Mr. Seinfeld, allow me to direct you to the hilarious clip below from the HBO special (via Best Week Ever). I about lost it after his "senators from Krypton remark."

I have to say that Seinfeld echoes my exact sentiments. I haven't sat down and watched the Oscars, Emmys or the Golden Globes in many, many years. I think the last award ceremony that I found even remotely interesting was the Pinewood Derby Awards in 1987, and that's only because I was a participant (and by the way, Boy Scout Troop 141: those weight restrictions are there for a reason. I lost against a car that was clearly over the legal limit).

In all honesty, I'm glad Seinfeld won the Comedian Award, because I really can't take any professional seriously unless they've been given some kind of engraved tchotchke for their efforts. That's why I currently have eleven cavities and am searching for a dentist who has won the Best Dentist Award. Otherwise, why bother?